SEQUENCE OF EARLIER HEAVEN
(1998)

for eight digital soundtracks

The title refers to the pattern of trigrams
in the I Ching known as the Primal Arrangement, based on pairs of
opposites, such as Heaven and Earth (Ch'ien
& K'un), Wind and Thunder
(Sun & Chên), Water and Fire (K'an & Li),
Mountain and Lake (Kên
& Tui). In the musical
work, this progression takes place in 8 sections,
each
ninety seconds in length,
where each pair of four
channels depicts the energy generated by these oppositions. When
diffused through speakers arranged in a cube, the upper and lower sets
of speakers reflect this relationship. The work is the complement to
the Sequence of Later
Heaven (1993) which depicts the trigrams
as a periodic cycle.

The work, as with its counterpart, is entirely
based on musical instruments found in Pacific Rim cultures, including
the Javanese gamelan gongs, the Philippine patangok, the khaen from
South-East Asia, the Korean kayageum, the Chinese guzheng and tam-tam,
Japanese meditation bells, bamboo brushes, the rosewood keyed marimba
from Central America, the Peruvian bombo and box drum, and the Chilean
rainstick. These sounds are mixed together to form chords whose complex
spectra become more apparent when the sounds are digitally resonated
and/or stretched in time.

The composer is grateful to Sal Ferreras, Russell
Hartenberger and Randy Raine-Reusch who provided the source material
for this work, along with the Simon Fraser University gamelan, Kyai
Madu Sari (The Venerable Essence of Honey). The work was
commissioned with the assistance of the Canada Council by ACREQ.

Spectrogram
Analysis
from
the middle
section of the work, which is part of the author's Documentation
Analysis DVD
(contact truax@sfu.ca for further information and availability)

Technical note

The work was realized using the composer's PODX
system which incorporates the DMX-1000 Digital Signal Processor
controlled by a PDP Micro-11 computer. The principal signal processing
technique involves digital
resonators, time stretching and harmonizing
of the sampled sounds with software for real-time granular synthesis and
processing developed by the composer in the School for the Contemporary
Arts at Simon Fraser University.The eight-channel spatial diffusion was realized with
Harmonic Functions' DM-8
signal processor.